Developer Chat

Gridiron Dynasty

The purpose of this chat is to answer any questions that you may have regarding Gridiron Dynasty -- recruiting, game planning, upcoming features, etc.

Many people believe that "the squeaky wheel gets the grease", especially when it comes to the GD forums. Is there a better vetting system for huge changes like "carryover reform" other than simply trusting the developers? Or are there other ideas floating around that will allow veteran players to help test big changes in GD? (andynomore - Hall of Famer - 1:59 PM)

I think the belief that "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" is not true. All the changes that we make to the game are done with the purpose to make the game better and more enjoyable for everyone. Do we listen to what users have to say? Of course we do, but the bottom line is that we always do what we feel is best for the game as a whole moving forward.

Does team practice carry over from season to season? (ttnorm - Hall of Famer - 2:00 PM)

Yes, but there will always be some loss in the team areas in the offseason.

Would the ability for schools to be able to offer a coach a job be possible? Say Miami has 2 losing seasons and fires there coach and then offers a coach at Baylor the job after he has had sucess for 2 or 3 seasons. (saint66 - All-Star - 2:02 PM)

This (the job change process) is not something that we are looking at changing. I believe the setup (applications) is good and allows for equal access to all available jobs.

will you consider changing the way fatigue is handled at half-time? Right now it seems as if too many players are coming back too tired at the start of the 2nd half. (dlayers - Hall of Famer - 2:06 PM)

I'm not sure if players are coming back too tired -- I'd have to do more research in this area. However, I think a lot of coaches set their effective percents so high that it is nearly impossible for their players to play much in the second half. I see many, many coaches set players at 85% or 90%. Remembering that players do not re-enter the game until 5% above their settings, how easy will it be for these players to play in the second half? ...start out at 95% rested after playing a full half?

are there any plans to further tweak the recruit distribution (either location-wise, quantity-wise, or quality-wise)? It seems that the distribution alone has turned Cal into an elite. (therunandgun - Pro - 2:08 PM)

No. I have made some changes to the distribution since this latest update that have put the numbers (location and quality across all divisions) in what I feel is a very good spot for the game moving forward. I don't think further changes will be necessary.

I hope so, but I have no control over it. We are going to be heavily promoted within their BCS Bowl Pick'em game currently running on foxsports.com.

what are the heaviest factors that come into play when a player decides to leave school early for the NFL? which is most important of the three: stats, ratings, or # of starts? (dlayers - Hall of Famer - 2:12 PM)

The biggest factors are the players ratings and his perceived value relative to all other players at his position that are eligible for the NFL draft. The reasoning here is that if the player is rated in the top several players at any given position, he would be a high draft choice and likely leave early. I think this is a realistic way to draw the initial pool of players considering early entry. Then the stats the player had this past season increase/decrease his chances of leaving. Finally, the player's personality adjusts his chances.

Are there plans to reintroduce the old FAQ, or at least make it available somewhere on your site? It seems that new players are having a heck of a time finding basic gaming information. (leppykahn - Hall of Famer - 2:14 PM)

The FAQ is currently available -- simply go to the knowledge base by clicking Help at the top of any GD screen and then select Gridiron Dynasty from the category list and click Search. This will return all the information that was contained in the old FAQ. All the information is still available, it is simply easier to search for information now.

recruiting question, i have this dream that recruits consider other things instead of just money, like a player might have a favorite school, or a high GPA player might want to play at Stanford, etc, etc....thoughts on this as a possibilty? (plague - Hall of Famer - 2:18 PM)

Even though it seems contrary to popular belief, recruits do not look at the money spent at all -- the actual dollar amount spent is the by-product of building interest and a way to limit a coach's recruiting efforts during the recruiting period (create decisions, strategy, etc.). This interest is gained based upon the timing of actions, the type of actions, the prestige level of the school, and the coach doing the recruiting (success, experience, reputation, and loyalty). I don't know if adding in an arbitrary favorite school for a recruit, etc. would be a good thing at this time, but I won't rule anything out.

Any plans to add a 2-minute offensive setting, so that a team that is leading can use the clock more and be more cautious in the gameplan? (tmd39 - Hall of Famer - 2:20 PM)

The sim engine will automatically try to shorten the game by calling the most run oriented plays available within the game plan when in this situation. We have not added additional options such as this because we do not want to have too many settings and configurations and cause the game to become tedious to play.

Are there any plans to update the engine that determines the All-American teams? (disaacs - Hall of Famer - 2:23 PM)

The weighting of some of the factors used in determing the All-American teams may be a little off at this point, but this is something that is further down the list of future updates. While on the subject, the number of games a player starts has a large impact on these selections and I think this is something that is overlooked/confusing to people when they look at the selections. If a player only starts 2 of 13 games he is most definitely not going to be selected -- even if he rushes for 3000 yards and 40 TDs.

Do audibles exist? Specifically, if I run an offensive set that is "balanced" which has been stated is 50-50 run/pass, is the type of play pre-determined in the huddle or can the QB change it by what defense he sees? There seems to be some correlation to types of plays called in my balanced sets versus the type of defense I see. Am I completely off on this? (huskerbob - Hall of Famer - 2:24 PM)

No, audibles do not exist. The "play" is called prior to the offense (QB) seeing the defense and is run each time without changes.

Supposidly HD is looking to January for the Graphics update, any word when GD will be ready for it? (blackmink18 - Hall of Famer - 2:27 PM)

Most of our resources will be/are working on the HD update. When that update is completed, the plan is for those resources to shift to GD for a large update (both look and features/game play). The GD update will likely have around a 3 month schedule and therefore be released 3 months after the HD update. (I don't make the schedules or assign resources, so this is just my best guess.)

Are there plans to allow us to better judge player fatigue throughout the game? It seems it is currently impossible, especially for the non-skill positions like OL. An idea would be to allow us to click on each play and see who was on the field -- (barbam - All-Star - 2:29 PM)

Yes, this is absolutely something that I want to get incorporated into the play-by-play (along with who is on the field for each play).....I'm just not sure how to do it without destroying the "readability" of the boxscore and do it in such a way that the information is easily usable.

Does your discipline rating have any meaningful consequence in the game? (wayllander - Hall of Famer - 2:30 PM)

Right now, nope. The more lenient you are, the less disciplined your team will be moving forward.

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions, comments and suggestions.